
ClassX4isL!J 

Book JL2i5c3 



SPEECH ON 



JEFFERSON DAVIS 



DELIVERED AT THE 



REUNION 



U. C. V. 



HELD AT 



RICHMOND, VA, 



JUNE 1, 2, 3, 1915 



BY 

COL. B. W. GREEN ^0,<-p 

°^ ^ 

LITTLE ROCK, ARK. :' 






.1 



Mr. Commander and Comrades : 

I have been assigned the very pleasing duty to address 
you at this hour, giving in condensed outline the character 
of the soldier we admire, the statesman we venerate, the 
Christian we emulate, the patriot without compare, the man 
we love, the President we adore — Jefferson Davis. 

Would this duty had been assigned to abler hands, but 
I yield nothing to others who would do homage to his 
memory. 

I cannot hope to add anything to that which has been 
well said by his many friends. The question which con- 
fronts me is what I shall leave unsaid. 

His life and record is not only well known to you and 
to America, but is of international fame and interest ; yet 
I would offer my tribute, however small. 

I cannot in the limited time assigned me undertake to 
give even an outline of his life, but must confine myself to 
a presentation of the splendid character he achieved and 
which stands out on the horizon of American history as our 
wonderful mountains along the Western coast, in silent 
greatness and rugged grandeur, attracting the attention 
and commanding the admiration of all who behold. 

General Bennett H. Young in an address at New Or- 
leans, summing up the life of Jefferson Davis, uniquely said : 
"The soldier, 1828 to 1835. 
"The planter, 1835 to 1845. 
"The statesman, 1845 to 1846. 
"The soldier again, 1846 to 1847. 
"The Senator, 1857 to 1861. 
"The President, 1861 to 1865. 
"The prisoner, 1865 to 1867. 

"The martyr and victim of persecution as the repre- 
sentative of his people, 1867 to 1889." 
With such a varied and wide experience, his character 
at all times exemplified gentleness and unselfishness. He 
was unassuming and rigidly truthful, combining a life of 
patriotism, nobility and sincerity with an honest desire to 
serve his fellow-man which challenges the world's admira- 
tion. 



As his character becomes better known and under- 
stood, the luster of a pure and great soul will increase in 
brightness unto the perfect day. 

Having served in public life for more than thirty con- 
secutive years, until 1861 found him with the highest hon- 
ors his State could bestow (a Senator of the United States), 
there was nothing more that he could wish, and yet at the 
call of duty, the voice of his State, he laid aside his honors 
voluntarily in order to serve his people's interest. He was 
not at any time a secessionist. He urged on all occasions 
forbearance and patience when political wrongs were 
heaped upon the South. He said: "Remain in the Union, 
though the right to secede is constitutional ; but it is not ex- 
pedient to use that right. Contend for the rights of the 
States within the Union and under the old flag" (for which 
he had poured out his blood on the fields of Mexico) ; but 
when his State passed the ordinance of secession he ten- 
dered his resignation as United States Senator, choosing 
rather to take his lot with his own people as a private citi- 
zen. In order to show his position at this time I quote, in 
part, his words on tendering his resignation. Mr. Davis 
said: 

"Senators, we recur to the principles upon which our 
Government was founded, and when you deny them and 
when you deny us the right to withdraw from a government 
which, thus perverted, threatens to be destructive to our 
rights, we but tread in the path of our fathers when we pro- 
claim our independence and take the hazard. 

"This is done not in hostility to others, not to injure 
any section of the country, not even for our own pecuniary 
benefit, but from the high and solemn motive of defending 
and protecting the rights we inherited and which it is our 
duty to transmit unshorn to our children. I find in myself 
perhaps a type of the general feeling of my constituents 
towards yours. 

"I am sure I feel no hostility towards you. Senators of 
the North. I am sure there is not one of you, whatever 
sharp discussions there may have been between us, to whom 
I cannot now say in the presence of my God I wish you well, 



and such, I am sure, is the feeling of the people whom I rep- 
resent toward those whom you represent. I, therefore, feel 
that I but express their desire when I say I hope and they 
hope for peaceable relations with you, though we must part. 
They may be mutually beneficial to us in the future as they 
have been in the past if you so will it. The reverse may 
bring disaster on every portion of the country, and if you 
will have it thus we will invoke the God of our fathers who 
delivered them from the power of the lion to protect us from 
the ravages of the bear, and thus putting our trust in God 
and in our firm hearts and strong arms we will vindicate 
the right as best we may. 

"In the course of my service here, associated at differ- 
ent times with a great variety of Senators, I see now around 
me some with whom I have served long. There have been 
points of collision, but whatever of offense there has been" to 
me I leave here; I carry with me no hostile remembrance. 
Whatever offense I have given which has not been redressed 
or for which satisfaction has not been demanded, I have, 
Senators, in this hour of our parting to offer you my apology 
for any pain which in the heat ol the discussion I have in- 
flicted. I go hence unincumbered by the remembrance of 
any injury received and having discharged the duty of mak- 
ing the only reparation in my power for any injury offered. 

"Mr. President and Senators, having made the an- 
nouncement which the occasion seemed to me to require, it 
only remains for me to bid you a final adieu." 

Be it remembered that Jefferson Davis was educated at 
West Point and at the expense of the United States Gov- 
ernment, who owned and controlled that institution. 

The text-book on the Constitution and Civil Govern- 
ment endorsed the doctrine of States Rights and States Sov- 
ereignty as held and understood by the South. 

Why then should the Government of the United States 
condemn her student who had been taught this doctrine by 
her direction when he undertook to put that doctrine into 
practice ? 

Mr. Davis on his return trip to Mississippi was inter- 
viewed at every important railroad station, and at all such 



6 



points he told the people "to prepare for war, and that great 
odds were against us. That the North was fully determined 
as we were to fight it out to a finish." 

"They had five times the men for war that we had. They 
had all of the manufacturing resources of the country, all 
arsenals and manufacturers of munitions of war. All of the 
arms then in arsenals. The regular army and navy. They 
would blockade our ports, and we could get no outside aid." 
He said: "We have no navy — not one boat. No arsenals, 
no powder mills. No manufacturers for w^ar materials. No 
standing army. No munitions of war. We are an agricul- 
tural people, the North a manufacturing people. They can 
put three million men in the field and we only a half million. 
The result is inevitable." Mr. Davis never gave up the hope 
of a satisfactory compromise until the first gun had been 
fired. He contended that a guarantee of equal rights under 
the Constitution would restore the Union immediately. 

On arrival in Mississippi he was met by Governor Pet- 
tus, who off'ered him a commission as Major General, and as- 
signed him to command all of the military forces of the 
State. He accepted this commission and at once issued all 
proper orders and went to his plantation to put things in 
order for a long absence. He requested the Governor to buy 
arms and munitions of war to the full limit of the treasury, 
and all he could borrow upon the faith of the State ; but the 
Governor thought an investment of $75,000 a sufficient sum. 
On February 9, 1861, Mr. Davis was elected President of 
the provisional government of the Confederate States of 
America by a unanimous vote. Mr. Davis regarded the 
Confederate Constitution a model of wisdom, temperate and 
liberal statesmanship, and, as his election was unanimous 
and for one year only, he accepted, though he greatly pre- 
ferred active military service. He was in no sense a candi- 
date for the Presidency, and was greatly disappointed that 
he had been elected. He said to his personal friends that 
he felt qualified by education and experience to command 
troops in the field, but he greatly doubted his qualifications 
and fitness for civil office, and especially the head of the gov- 
ernment. This shows his modesty and want of personal 



ambition for place and power, but as the call was for the 
President of a provisional government for twelve months, 
his, sense of duty demanded that he accept the place. 
^ In his inaugural address he said in part: "Called to 
the difficult and responsible station of chief executive of the 
provisional government you have instituted, I approach the 
discharge of the duties assigned me with an humble distrust 
of my ability, but with a sustaining confidence in the wis- 
dom of those who are to guide and aid me in the administra- 
tion of public affairs, and in an abiding faith in the virtue 
and patriotism of the people. The American idea is that 
government rests upon the consent of the governed, and that 
it is the right of the people to alter or abolish the govern- 
ment whenever it becomes destructive to the ends for which 
it was established." After his inaugural he wrote to a 
friend : "Upon my weary heart are showered smiles, plaud- 
its and flowers, but beyond these I see trouble and thorns 
innumerable. We are without machinery, without means, 
and threatened by a powerful opposition, but I do not de- 
spond and will not shrink from the task imposed upon me."^,^ 

The provisional government having expired February 
22, 1862, Congress re-elected Mr. Davis to the Presidency. 
Again Mr. Davis was disappointed, because, weary of civil 
office and its burdens, he longed for the field where he be- 
lieved he could render more efficient service and much more 
to his taste, but it was not to be so. This shows his self- 
sacrifice to duty, ^he closing sentence of his inaugural ad- 
dress was in the form of a prayer. He said : "With humble 
gratitude we acknowledge the Providence which has so visi- 
bly protected the Confederacy during its brief but eventful 
career. To Thee, God, I trustingly commit myself and 
prayerfuHy^invoke Thy blessings on my country and its 
cause."v^hus Mr. Davis entered upon his martyrdom, pale 
and emaciated, offering himself upon the altar of his coun- 
try, forgetting self, and to be the victim of events to follow, 
a willing sacrifice on his funeral pyre. 

The Confederacy at first victorious, events followed 
rapidly tending to its final collapse. Yet Mr. Davis did not 
once despair, and stood a rampart of strength and courage 



8 

which was liberally imparted to all who came to him, and 
as the days grew darker and the clamor arose for a peace 
compromise, Mr. Davis (distrusting the outcome) sent com- 
missioners to Hampton Roads to confer with Mr. Lincoln, 
but nothing was accomplished. Some have said that Mr. 
Lincoln was very liberal, writing at the head of the page, 
"The Union shall and must be preserved," and saying, "You 
gentlemen of the South may write the terms." This sounds 
liberal to those not in the strife, but to us of the South who 
were fighting for self-preservation and for constitutional 
government to surrender this vital point was to surrender all 
for which our armies were still in the field — Lee before Rich- 
mond and Johnston in Georgia, Taylor in Mississippi and 
Price and Smith in the trans-Mississippi. We claimed to-be a 
separate government from that of the United States. For Mr. 
Davis to surrender our nationality would have been treason, 
notwithstanding the liberality of the terms. But Mr. Stephens 
and his associates made no such report to President Davis. 
If Mr. Lincoln made such overtures they were not conveyed 
to our President. Mr. Davis was greatly grieved by the 
condition of Southern prisoners in Northern prisons. The 
constant death roll was a great burden to him. The suffer- 
ing of Northern prisoners in Southern prisons was also a 
grief and burden. He urged the officials of the North to 
send medicines necessary for their people in prison, and 
that they might send their own surgeons to care for the 
sick in prison, and that they should have the protection of 
the government and safe passport when they desired to go 
north. This was rejected. The offer was made to purchase 
necessary medicine for gold, to be used for the benefit solely 
of United States soldiers in Southern prisons. This was 
rejected. Exchange of prisoners offered by the South was 
also refused. Their prisoners in our hands were given the 
same rations our men received in the field — rough, of 
course ; insuflflcient, it is true. Want of exercise, confined in 
close limits, necessarily caused death, and this grieved the 
heart of Mr. Davis and caused him to insist upon exchange, 
which was ofttimes refused. His humanity in this matter 
should have been met by a hearty response in the North, but 
was ignored. 



9 

In the course of events General Lee advised the Presi- 
dent that in his judgment "the archives and all valuable 
property of the government should be sent south, for it was 
only a question of days until Richmond must be evacuated." 
The message from General Lee became known by the public 
and was exaggerated to such an extent that the President 
thought best to address the citizens of Richmond and quiet 
the excited public pulse. This was done in a speech by the 
President from the steps of the African Church. He said 
he still had hope of the final outcome. He summed up the 
remaining resources of the South, and saw there was no 
cause for alarm. He did not doubt success, though we had 
met great losses, but there was no cause for fear. Think- 
ing he could be of more service if not burdened with the 
care of his family in the event the city must be given up, 
he sent his wife and children south. He had about $100 in 
gold and gave his wife $95 of that. Mrs. Davis wanted to 
take with her their store of family groceries, for fear they 
could not buy needed things south, but the President refused 
to permit this, sending all they had on hand to the hospitals 
for the sick and wounded of our army. 

As hope died out in the breast of the rank and file of 
the army, the courage of the President rose, and he became 
fertile in expedients to supply deficiencies. He was calm in 
all of the turmoil and confusion of evacuating the capital 
and removal of the archives and valuables. One after an- 
other of his trusted lieutenants was killed. The army under 
Lee was depleted by death, wounds and want of sustenance, 
while the enemy was constantly being reinforced. General 
Lee wired Mr. Davis that "he could no longer hold Peters- 
burg, and would move out that night; therefore, Richmond 
must be given up at once." On Sunday, April 2nd, while in 
St, Paul's Church, General Lee's telegram was handed Mr. 
Davis. He quietly left the church and went to his oflice and 
called for the heads of departments and ordered removal 
that night. The news soon reached the people of the city. 
Mr. Davis admitted the facts, but was hopeful, and said: 
"This is only one of the exigencies of war. We will come 
back," The people responded, "If it requires the sacrifice 
of Richmond, we are content," He left the city that night 



10 



for Danville, Va. On April 6th he wrote his wife from Dan- 
ville: "I have heard from General Lee and will conform 
my movements to that of the army. Will make this place 
headquarters for the time." It was Lee's intention to form 
a junction with the army of Johnston at Danville, but this 
plan was anticipated by Grant and thwarted. 

On the 9th of April, General Lee saw that it was use- 
less to contend further, as he had only 7,892 men and was 
surrounded by a well-equipped army of 162,000 men, and he 
sent a note to General Grant. The outcome was the sur- 
render at Appomattox. On news of the surrender of Gen- 
eral Lee, Mr. Davis went south to Greensboro, N. C, 
where he met General J. E. Johnston, who asked permission 
to open correspondence with General Sherman, looking to 
a suspension of hostilities. Mr. Davis in subsequent cor- 
respondence on the subject said: 

"The first conference of the cabinet after leaving Rich- 
mond was held at Greensboro, N. C., and General Joseph 
S. Johnston was present by request. 

"General Johnston expressed a desire to open a corre- 
spondence with General Sherman with a view to suspend 
hostilties, and thereby to permit the civil authorities to enter 
into needful arrangements to end the war. As long as we 
were able to keep the field I had never contemplated a sur- 
render, except upon the terms of a belligerent, and never 
expected a Confederate army to surrender while it was able 
either to fight or to retreat. General Lee had surrendered 
only when it was impossible for him to do either, and had 
proudly rejected Grant's demand until he found himself 
surrounded and his line of retreat cut off. I was not hope- 
ful of negotiations between the civil authorities of the 
United States and those of the Confederacy, believing that, 
even if Sherman should agree to such a proposition, his 
government would not ratify it. After having distinctly an- 
nounced my opinions, I yielded to the judgment of my con- 
stitutional advisers and consented to permit General John- 
ston to hold a conference with General Sherman. 

"General Johnston left for his army headquarters and 
I, expecting that he would soon take up his line of retreat 
(which his superiority in cavalry would protect from har- 



11 

assing pursuit), proceeded with my cabinet and staff to 
Charlotte, N. C. On the way a dispatch was received from 
General Johnston stating that General Sherman had agreed 
to a conference, and asking that the Secretary of War, Gen- 
eral Breckinridge, should return to co-operate in it. 

"When we arrived in Charlotte, on April 18th, we re- 
ceived a telegram announcing the assassination of Presi- 
dent Lincoln. A vindictive policy speedily substituted that 
of Mr. Lincoln, which was kindly and liberal. 

"I notified General Johnston that I approved his action 
in articles signed by him and General Sherman, but doubted 
approval by the United States Government. The agree- 
ment was rejected and the terms of surrender made by Gen- 
eral Grant and Lee were substituted. 

"General Lee had succumbed to the inevitable. Some 
persons, with probably a desire to pay a weak tribute to 
Lee's kind heart, or to rob Grant of his claim to magna- 
nimity in the matter of the surrender, have said that Gen- 
eral Lee had only surrendered to stop the effusion of blood. 

"This is not true. General Lee had no weakness where 
his plain duty was concerned. He surrendered to over- 
whelming force and insurmountable difficulties. The sur- 
render of General Johnston was a different aftair. His line 
of retreat, as chosen by himself through South Carolina, was 
open and supplies were placed upon it at various points. He 
had a large force, of which over 36,000 were paroled at 
Greensboro, N. C. We had other forces in the field, and 
we were certainly in a position to make continued resistance. 
This was all the more important, as such a course would 
have been of service in securing better terms in bringing the 
war to an end. 

"On May 8th, General Richard Taylor agreed with Gen- 
eral Canby for the surrender of the land and naval forces in 
Mississippi and Alabama on terms similar to those made be- 
tween Johnston and Sherman. 

"On May 26th, the Chiefs of Staff of Generals Kirby 
Smith and Canby arranged similar terms for the surrender 
of the troops in the Trans-Mississippi Department." 

Mr. M. H. Clarke, of Mr. Davis* staff, said: "I came 
out of Richmond with him as confidential clerk of the Execu- 



12 



tive Office, in charge of the office papers and a member of his 
military family, his cabinet and staff ; and I was close to his 
person until he parted with me near Sandersville, Ga., and 
sent me on in charge of our wagon train. His purpose was 
to join nis wife in her travels South. 

"Ihus daily and nightly he was under my eyes, and I 
watched over him with aifectionate and earnest solicitude. 

"On the retreat (if so leisurely a retirement could be 
so called) I saw an organized government disintegrate and 
fall to pieces little by little, until there was only left a single 
member of the Cabinet, his Private Secretary, a few mem- 
bers of his staff, a few guides and servants to represent 
what had been a powerful government which had sustained 
itself against the soldiery of all nations of the earth. Under 
these unfortunate circumstances his great resources of mind 
and neart shone out most brilliantly. He was calm, self- 
poised, giving way to no petulance of temper at discomfort, 
advising and consoling, laying aside all thought of self, plan- 
ning and doing what was best, not only for our unhappy and 
despairing people, but uttering gentle, sweet words of con- 
solation and wise advice to every family w^here he entered 
as guest. He filled my own distressed heart so full of emo- 
tions Oi love and admiration that it could hardly contain 
them. 

•'To me he then appeared incomparably grander in the 
nobleness of his great heart and head than when he reviewed 
victorious armies returning from well-won fields. 

"I could give many touching incidents of evenings 
around the fireside or noonday halts for rest and refresh- 
ment, of little children taken on his knee, of tender, com- 
forting answers to eager, breathless questions. He left every 
family sanctified by his blessed presence, adding his house- 
hold words to their treasured memories. ' 'Here was where 
he sat; here he slept; he said this and that.' Along the 
•ojte he gave pleasant anecdotes and reminiscences to cheer 
the weary, anxious hours during those long days from April 
2nd to May 6th. Thoughtful of all details, he gave directions 
about the horses, how best to feed and care for them, reme- 
dies for the sick ones, how to cross the rivers, and was 
watchful of all. He w^as the father and comforter, while 
still the leader and director of affairs. 



13 



"Through all these scenes the real man shone out and 
dignified the mantle of his office. I thank God it was given to 
me to see him as I did, and to have embalmed in my heart 
such sweet and precious memories of our great chief. 

"To me, the last Confederate officer on duty, he gave 
the great reward and honor of two personal visits to my 
home." 

After leaving Charlotte, a friend of Mr. Davis said they 
stopped for the night at Salisbury, where he was entertained 
by an Episcopal clergyman, and at breakfast the little daugh- 
ter of eight years of the host came crying to Mr. Davis and 
said, "Oh, sir, Mr. Lincoln is coming and will kill all of us." 

Mr. Davis at once laid down his knife and fork and 
said, "My child, you need not fear. Mr. Lincoln is a good 
man and does not want to kill anyone, and certainly not a 
sweet little girl." The child was pacified. He said to his host 
that he regretted the assassination of Mr. Lincoln and con- 
sidered it a great catastrophy. "Mr. Lincoln was a much 
better man than Mr. Johnson, who will succeed him. This 
will go hard with our people." 

From this place Mr. Davis went to Washington, Ga., 
and there received the first official information of the sur- 
render of the army under General Joseph E. Johnston. He, 
at once, ordered the Secretary of War to pay off the soldiers 
with the silver on hand, and dismissed all of his military 
escort, asking for only ten volunteers to accompany him. 
Many volunteered, but he would only accept ten. With these 
ten men and five of his personal staff he left Washington. 
Mr. Davis intended to go West and cross the Chattahoochee 
and attempt to fall in with troops in Alabama and so cross 
the Mississippi River and join General E. K. Smith and 
continue the war on that side of the river, with tha ultimate 
jnirpose that the seceded States should return to the United 
States with all rights of the States unimpaired. At Wash- 
ington Mr. Davis assembled those of his Cabinet who were 
present for the last time, and formerly dissolved it, telling 
each m.ember to look out for his own safety until more auspi- 
cious time should bring them together again. 

Three days after leaving Washing-ton he was so fortu- 
nat2 as to find his family encamped for the night with a 



14 

small wagon train, and traveled two or three days with 
them. It was his intention then to leave them and adhere 
to his purpose of crossing the Mississippi River. His horse 
remained saddled all night and his pistols in the holsters, 
and he laid down to rest j ust before dawn, but soon his negro 
coachman came to him and said he heard firing nearby. Mr. 
Davis went out of his wife's tent and he saw some of the 
United States regular cavalry. His wife asked him to leave 
her and to make his escape. His horse was hitched nearby 
on the road on which the United States troops approached 
the camp. As it was still quite dark, he picked up in the 
tent what he thought was his raincoat, and found later it 
was his wife's. But there was little difference in the two 
garments. His wife threw a shawl over his shoulders to 
protect him against the early morning air. He had left the 
tent only a few steps when he was ordered to halt, to which 
Mr. Davis replied defiantly, dropping the raincoat and shawl 
and advanced upon the trooper, intending to unhorse him 
and escape, but Mrs. Davis rushing up and throwing her 
arms about him, there was nothing to do but surrender. 
Many false statements have been made by his enemies as 
to the dress he wore when arrested, but Mr. Davis' soldierly 
character and well-known courage will give the lie to all 
such stories, and those of his household who w^ere present 
will bear him out in his statements that he wore a gentle- 
man's morning wrapper, which he had put on in the early 
part of the evening so as to get a more comfortable rest in 
sleep. I have personally seen this wrapper, now among the 
war relics in the State House at Jackson, Miss. It is a loose- 
fitting, gray wrapper, such as many now use in their bed- 
rooms. 

Mr. Davis and family were taken to Macon, and given 
comfortable quarters in a hotel. He was charged with com- 
plicity in the assassination of Mr. Lincoln, and a reward of 
$100,000 was offered for his arrest by President Johnson. 
He was taken before General Wilson at Macon. When shown 
the proclamation of President Johnson offering a reward as 
an accomplice in the murder of President Lincoln, Mr. Davis 
said, "there was one man at least who knew the charge to 
be false," and General Wilson asked him to say who that 



15 



man was, and he replied, "The man who signed the procla- 
mation, for he well knew that I greatly preferred Lincoln 
to himself." 

Mr. Davis and his family were taken by boat to Hamp- 
ton Roads. At this place the family was separated, Mr. 
Davis was sent to Fortress Monroe and his family was sent 
by boat to Savannah, Ga. 

When taken to Fortress Monroe, Mr. Davis was confined 
in the Gun Room or casemate, the embrasure of which was 
closed with a heavy iron grating and the two doors which 
communicated with the Gunners' Room were closed by heavy 
doubled shutters fastened with crossbars and padlocked. 
The side openings had been closed with fresh masonry, the 
plastering of which was still soft to the touch. The other 
walls were of solid masonry. The top was arched to sustain 
the earth of the parapet. Two sentinels, with loaded mus- 
kets and fixed bayonets, paced to and fro across the prison. 
Other guards were in the Gunner's Room adjoining. The 
officer of the day held the key to the outer door, and sentinels 
posted on the pavement in front of it. There were sentinels 
on the parapet overhead. The embrasure looked out upon a 
ditch sixty feet wide, containing seven to ten feet of water. 
Beyond the ditch was a double chain of sentinels, and in 
the rooms adjoining the casemate were the regular guard 
when not on duty. Surely this was enough precaution to 
keep the prisoner, who was sick, exhausted and weak. His 
surroundings were enough to cause a strong young man to 
become ill. The walls damp, the food coarse and badly pre- 
pared. He was deprived of sleep because of the very hard 
cot provided him, and the constant tramp of the sentinels, 
and with the bright light of an oil lamp which did not add 
to the cleanliness of the room, the loud call at intervals of 
changing the guard and unlocking doors, soon produced 
fever and erysipelas. But this great precaution and cruelty 
was not enough to satisfy General Miles, and the War De- 
partment. 

On May 23, 1865, the officer of the day. Captain J. Tot- 
ton, of the Third Pennsylvania Artillery, came to the prison 
with two blacksmiths bearing a heavy pair of leg irons, 
coupled together by a ponderous chain, with orders from 



16 



General Miles to put them on him. Mr. Davis objected and 
resisted, but four strong men were called in and threw him 
on his back and sat on him while the blacksmiths welded on 
the irons around his ankles. Mr. Davis asked to be shot at 
once and so save the great misery he knew these irons would 
cause and the indignity to his person and people. He said 
his condact on the occasion of ironing him and what he said 
to Captain Totton was misrepresented in the report made 
by Dr. Craven, for he was not present. All of his personal 
clothes were removed and he was given instead heavy, un- 
suited seaman's wardrobe. When he spoke of this to the doc- 
tor he was told that his clothing was then on exhibition or 
preserved as relics. For many days Mr. Davis suffered 
great anxiety as to the whereabouts and condition of his 
wife and children, but could get no news or intelligence, 
and he said this was harder to bear patiently than all of his 
personal ills and suffering. 

On May 24th, Dr. J. J. Craven, surgeon for the Fort, 
called professionally on the prisoner, and seeing him for the 
first time, he described his impression of Mr. Davis in this 
way: "Mr. Davis presented a very miserable and afflicting 
aspect. Stretched upon his pallet, very much emaciated, 
he appeared a mere fascine of raw and tremulous nerves. 
His eyes restless and fevered, his head continually shifting 
from side to side for a cool spot on his pillow, and his case 
clearly one in which intense cerebral excitement was the 
first thing needing attention. His pulse full and his tongue 
thickly coated, extremities cold and his head troubled with a 
long-established neuralgic disorder. He complained of his 
thin camp mattress and pillow stuffed with hair, and said 
his skin chafed easily against the slats of his cot." General 
Miles, recognizing these facts and not wishing the prisoner 
to die, ordered another mattress added to his cot and a softer 
pillow, for which Mr. Davis thanked him. He also ordered 
tobacco furnished the prisoner, as he had been for years ad- 
dicted to its use, yet he said the prisoner did not ask for it 
or make any other complaint. The prisoner could not drink 
the poor coffee furnished, and a better grade was ordered for 
him. 

Dr. Craven advised the prisoner to spend as little time 



17 



as possible on his couch, and said to him, "Exercise is in- 
dispensable to your health." Mr. Davis then threw off the 
blankets, exposing his shackled ankles, and said: "Doctor, 
it is impossible for me to walk or even to stand with these 
heavy irons upon my ankles. Please examine and you will 
see that the skin has already been abrased in large patches. 
Can you in some way cushion these irons, for I am very 
weak and my skin is easily lacerated. 

"You see that these irons are not needful for my secur- 
ity. It is clear to my mind that the object of General Miles 
and the Government is to offer an indignity to myself and 
also to the cause which I represent, and that cause is sacred 
to me, though for the time being it is covered by a pall and 
military disaster, and I wish to say. Doctor, that was my 
reason for resisting with all of my strength the indignity 
which they overcame with physical strength." 

Dr. Craven reported the physical condition of the pri- 
soner to General Miles, and requested him to have the irons 
removed as a necessity for the life of the prisoner. General 
Miles ordered the irons removed, and the inside guards were 
removed from his room, some days later, and, after this, per- 
mission was given Mr. Davis to be allowed an hour each day 
upon the ramparts for exercise. He was to have books and 
papers such as were approved at headquarters. General 
Miles came the first day and walked with Mr. Davis on the 
ramparts, but owing to his weakened condition he was not 
strong enough to take such exercise more than half an hour. 
Mr. Davis walked quite feebly, but held himself erect and 
proudly. He was still dressed in the seaman's coarse garb, 
which he now found oppressive as the weather became 
warmer. Later the New York Herald and other papers were 
furnished and some books — Bancroft's History was his fa- 
vorite book. But much of the pleasure of reading v/as denied 
him because of the weakness of his eye. (He had only one 
eye.) He greatly longed for the privilege of a trial, and as 
this was def3rred he became heartsick and wanted to die 
so as to be relieved of his suffering and torture. He slept 
but little. The lamp with its bright light was a source of 
great discomfort. Then the fact that his every movement 
was watched and he could feel the human eye riveted upon 



18 

him constantly was a refinement of torture, and he became 
afraid that his reason would give way under the strain. On 
July 30th, Dr. Craven found Mr. Davis very ill, nervous 
debility in the extreme, no appetite, complexion livid and 
pulse denoting deep prostration of all physical energies. The 
Doctor became much alarmed, for to have Mr. Davis die in 
prison before his trial and when it became known of the 
cruelties inflicted upon him, the verdict of public opinion 
would not be to the credit of the Government. The Doctor 
said of him at this date: "No patient has ever crossed my 
path who suffered so much himself and yet appeared to feel 
so warmly and tenderly for others. 

"There was no affectation of devoutness or asceticism 
in my patient; but every opportunity I had of seeing him 
convinced me more deeply of his sincere religious convic- 
tions. He was fond of referring to passages of Scripture, 
comparing text with text, dwelling on the divine beauty of 
the imagery, and the wonderful adaptation of the whole to 
every conceivable phase and stage of human life. 

"The Psalms were his favorite portion of the Book, and 
he said, 'There is sufficient evidence of their divine origin 
in the fact that only an intelligence which holds the life- 
threads of the entire human family could have uttered in a 
single cry every wish, joy, fear, exultation, hope, passion 
and sorrow of the human heart.' There w-ere moments while 
speaking on religious subjects in which Mr. Davis impressed 
me more than any professor of Christianity I had ever heard. 
There was a vital earnestness in his discourse, a clear, almost 
passionate grasp of his faith ; the thought would frequently 
recur to me that a belief capable of consoling such sorrows 
as his, possessed and thereby evidenced a reality and sub- 
stance which no sophistry of the infidel could discredit. 

"To this phase of the prisoner's character I have here- 
tofore rather avoided calling attention for several reasons, 
prominent of which, though an unworthy one, was this: 
My knowledge that many, if not a majority of my readers 
would approach the character of Mr. Davis with a precon- 
ception of dislike and distrust, and a consequent fear that 
an earlier forcing on their attention of this phase of his 
character, before their opinion had been modified by such 



19 

glimpses as are herein given, might only challenge a base 
and false imputation of hypocrisy against one whom, in my 
judgment, no more devout exemplar of Christian faith, and 
its value as a consolidation, now lives, whatever may have 
been his political crimes." 

Dr. Craven's tribute to the character of Mr. Davis is 
the more valuable because he knew him under the most ad- 
verse circumstances possible — prisoner charged with high 
treason — ^confined in a dungeon — fettered in irons — sick — 
weak — without any comforts — illy fed — deprived of social 
intercourse — no books, no papers — a hard bed — a bright 
light all night and watched constantly by sentinels in his 
room. Could there have been a more severe test? Yet his 
Christian character and manhood was unscathed and forced 
the admiration of his enemies in words of highest approval. 

After close imprisonment for two years Mr. Davis was 
released under bond, and immediately went with his family 
to New York, and, after a few weeks' residence there, he 
went to Montreal, Canada, and remained there until the 
following year, when he appeared in the Circuit Court at 
Richmond, Va., for trial, the indictment being high treason 
against the United States. 

During this time Mr. Johnson, the President of the 
United States, was exceedingly anxious to have Mr. Davis 
tried for treason, but the bold declaration made by Charles 
O'Connor, of New York, that Mr. Davis could never be con- 
victed of treason under our Constitution first aroused the 
administration to the dangers of the task it had assumed; 
and Mr. Johnson sent for his Attorney-General and re- 
quested him to look into the case and prepare a written 
opinion to be submitted to him and the Cabinet. 

Pending the Attorney-General's opinion, the President 
requested Mr. Hugh McCullough, Secretary of the Treasury, 
to visit Mr. Davis at Fortress Monroe and to ascertain his 
physical condition and to make such report as he thought 
proper. Mr. McCullough did so, and he said in his report: 
"My interview with Mr. Davis was a very pleasant one. 
There have been few men more gifted than he; few whose 
opportunities for intellectual culture have been better im- 
proved. I had not known him personally, but I knew his 



20 

standing among- the ablest men of the nation, and expected 
to meet an accomplished gentleman. To those who know 
him well, it is not necessary to say I was not disappointed 
and that I was most favorably impressed with his manner 
"nd conversation. He was not inclined to talk about himself, 
-nd what I learned of his treatment in prison was by direct 
questions, which he preferred not to talk about." 

Mr. Johnson's anxiety to convict Jefferson Davis 
of treason was such that he employed the greatest criminal 
lawyers of the age to assist the Attorney-General in his in- 
vestigation of the case, and tnen not being fully satisfied 
and fearing an adverse decision, he sent for the Chief Jus- 
tice of the United States and held quite a long conference 
with him, and asked him to look into the matter on the part 
of the United States, as he did not wish to begin the case 
against Mr. Davis without some assurance of success. 

If there ever was a partisan, it was Salmon P. Chase, 
but at the same time he was a great lawyer and an honest, 
fearless man. ''Lincoln," he said, "wanted Jefferson Davis 
to escape, and he was right. His capture was a mistake; 
his trial will be a greater one. We cannot convict him of 
treason. Secession is settled. Let it stay settled!" Signifi- 
cant words, truly, from that source, and they explain the vote 
of the great judge who would have quashed the indictment 
against Mr. Davis no less than the question so often asked : 
"Why. was Jefferson Davis never tried for treason?" 

It is not necessary to state that, on Mr. Davis' arrival 
at Richmond from Canada, he was admitted to bail on bond, 
which^ was signed by Horace Greeley and Gerritt Smith. The 
case against Jefferson Davis was never called in court. 

The following testimony as to the character of Mr. 
Davis is so well stated by men of known character and stand- 
ing that I prefer that they shall speak rather than I. 

The Rev. Dr. E. M. Green, now of Danville, Ky., was 
at the time Mr. Davis reached Washington, Ga., the pastor 
of the Presbyterian Church of that city, and the Honorable 
Alex. H. Stephens was a member of his charge. Some years 
after the war Judge Campbell, who previous to the war was 
Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, 
and was spending some time in Washington, Ga., with his 



21 



friends. Dr. Green interviewed him. Judge Campbell was 
one of the Commissioners sent by Mr. Davis to Hampton 
Roads to meet President Lincoln and Mr. Seward, Secretary 
of State, in company with Alex. H. Stephens, who was also 
one of the Commissioners, and Dr. Green desired to get from 
first hands a statement from Judge Campbell as to the char- 
acter of Mr. Davis, and said : "As the war is now ended and 
we have lost, please look back over the whole situation and 
tell me of the men who were ranked as our foremost at the 
beginning of the war and the unknown men who came to the 
front during the war, and tell me out of the whole who should 
have been President of the Confederacy." Judge Campbell's 
reply was not given readily, but in the course of conversa- 
tion he had criticised Mr, Davis unmercifully, and had said 
he was self-willed, strong-headed, blind to his favorites, very 
partial to some and very prejudiced against others; and I 
named some of our best men, and he said decidedly, "No!" 
and, with great emphasis, "The only man in the Southern 
Confederacy who should have been President was Jeiferson 
Davis." Dr. Green reminded him of his criticism upon Mr. 
Davis, and he said: "All that I have said about Mr. Davis 
is true, but we had no better man for President in the South. 
He was chivalrous and brave. He was a soldier and states- 
man, a born ruler and leader of men. He had in him more 
of the elements of success and did more for us than any 
other man could have done. When we consider the odds 
against us and all of the world opposed to us, our ultimate 
failure was inevitable, but Mr. Davis kept the Confederacy 
going for four years, and nobody else on earth could have 
accomplished this feat of civil and military strategy." He 
said, further, that "if every man in the South had been as 
true to the cause as was Jefferson Davis ; if every man had 
accomplished his full duty as faithfully, there never would 
have been a Lost Cause, nor a furled Confederate flag" ; but, 
after all, let us not forget that success does not always con- 
sist in achieving the purpose had in view. If we have not 
gained our cause, we have immortalized it. Devotion sancti- 
fies and heroic service ennobles ; defeat chastens ; it is some- 
thing to have lived so as to have one's self-respect and to 
command respect from others. Of all the men of all ages 



22 



there was none nobler and truer than Jefferson Davis, and 
may I add, also, his battle-scarred veterans of the Lost 
Cause. 

Hon. Alexander H. Stephens, Vice President of the Con- 
federacy, in an interview with his pastor. Dr. Green, said: 
"You are advised that I was not very friendly and in no 
ways chummy with Mr. Davis, but I wish to say he was the 
bravest and most courageous man I ever knew. He was ab- 
solutely without fear. I think real courage will take into 
account danger, but Mr. Davis had no such feeling. He was 
absolutely indifferent to personal danger." Mr. Stephens 
said, to illustrate: "When Richmond was to be evacuated 
a great many persons called upon Mr. Davis to know the 
situation of the Southern Confederacy at this crucial time, 
and Mr. Davis, not being able to see every one and to talk 
with them, announced that he would meet the citizens at 8 
o'clock at night and from the steps of the African Church, 
which occupied a commanding and open position, he would 
speak to them. I determined to go and hear what the Presi- 
dent would say at this critical juncture. I pushed myself 
through the crowd and got so near to him that I heard every 
word he said. When Mr. Davis arrived and stood upon the 
steps of the church a boundless sea of faces was turned 
toward him, and as far as his voice could reach, and the 
silence was deep, hushed and profound. Mr. Davis calmly 
and earnestly said, and the expression on his face carried 
conviction of his sincerity : That the disasters of to-day are 
temporary. They will be reversed. We will soon come back 
to establish the capital in this city. The ultimate success 
of the Southern Confederacy cannot be questioned, but we 
must have courage and fidelity to meet the situation.' There 
was no word, look or tone to indicate fear or misgivings. 
His faith was positively sublime. And when he had finished 
speaking, I thought of the words of one who witnessed the 
famous charge of the 600 at Balakhava, 'It is brilliant, but 
it is not war.' " And Mr. Stephens said, "This is brilliant, 
but it is not statesmanship," 

Governor Sanders, of Louisiana, in accepting the monu- 
ment erected to Mr. Davis at New Orleans, said : 

"Jefferson Davis, in his life and character and in his 



23 

statesmanship and bravery, is symbolic of all that is and has 
been good in Southern manhood. In every place, and under 
every condition, he proved himself a man. Fighting for his 
country on bloody fields of the Mexican v^ar, he there showed 
not only the caliber of his own soul, but typified the valor of 
Southern troops. It is said by those who know that he made 
the greatest Secretary of War the United States ever had. 
As a Senator from the commonwealth of Mississippi, he up- 
held the best traditions of the South, and added splendor to 
the name of American statesmanship. When the time came 
to decide as betwen the Union as it existed and his State, he 
delivered an address in the United States Senate that will 
stand forever as an expression of the highest hope, man- 
hood, courage and patriotism. He of all the great men of 
the South (and the South had many great men in those 
days) was selected by all the people to be the President of 
the Confederate States of America. His was not the glory 
of leading men on victorious battlefields; he was the chief 
magistrate of the new nation, and right well, loyally, splen- 
didly and nobly did he what mortal man could do for the 
nation. For four years the nation struggled, and our 
troops — the gallant remnants of which are gathered here 
now — held high in the heavens, and by devotion and courage 
and bravery unequaled tried to make that flag the eternal 
symbol of a nation's triumph. But it was not to be. The 
God/Of Battles decided otherwise." 

At the dedication of the Davis monument at New Or- 
leans, General Bennett H. Young, said: 

"Jefferson Davis, misjudged in life and disfranchised 
until his death, is finding his true place in history, and as 
sons and daughters of the South we are here to-day to de- 
clare this spot sacred and ever to remain sacred in Southern 
hearts, to again register our veneration for his memory, 
and to proclaim our love for him because of the sacrifices 
he made at the call of duty, and to bedeck with fresh laurels 
and renewed praise, him who bore the deepest humiliation 
for the Southern people. It fell to the lot of Jefferson Davis 
to be the leader of his people in the combat which cost un- 
told sacrifice of life and the expenditure of almost countless 
millions of treasure. 



24 

"As the voice of reason speaks to the public heart, 
there are many sad things in the career of Jefferson Davis 
that the nation regrets. The cruelties inflicted upon him 
at Fortress Monroe, the indignities pressed upon him when 
his emaciated limbs were manacled by force, the hardships 
upon him in his long confinement, all well-thinking Ameri- 
can citizens would blot out if they could. The impartial 
judgment of mankind will fix the wrong of these things 
where it belongs. It is a mem.ory of the past, regretful and 
sad. A prodigious struggle for what both sides believed 
unalterably right, the greatest war ever waged between 
English-speaking people, prolonged for four years over a 
wide area, was bound to bring sacrifices, losses, anguish 
and desolation, and along with these as products of passion 
and prejudice, there ensued many things which, in the light 
of after years, compel regret ; but, notwithstanding all these 
we can say that no nation ever passed through such fiery or- 
deals and emerged from them with so little that carries sor- 
row or lingering regrets. 

"Mr. Davis suffered as no other Confederate. He was 
refused the right of citizenship, and he steadily declined to 
ask it. The same right had been refused Robert E. 
Lee, and with this before him there was no hope for aught 
he might seek. The public sentiment of America, we believe, 
would expurge this from the unchangeable past could it be 
blotted out, and it ought to be the boast of our common 
country that only here and there, widely scattered and iso- 
lated, can there be found an American who does not deplore 
the wrongs done to Mr. Davis after the war. 

"He met every crisis dauntlessly and measured up to 
every just expectation and demand of his people. 

"At home he was sometimes opposed by his friends; 
criticized by those from whom he had a right to expect un- 
questioning support; maligned, misrepresented and mis- 
judged by his enemies, he yet bore in his life a nation's 
hopes, ambitions and woes, and his magnificent spirit did 
not quail before the vastness of the issues involved. He 
never hesitated in the discharge of any obligation, and he 
refused his countrymen nothing that love, genius and cour- 
age could bring, when measured by the highest standard 
that justice could fix." 



